Repatriation of Bru families during dry season: Singla

Aizawl (zoramobserver.com): The Adviser (Bru), Ministry of Home Affairs has suggested that repatriation of Bru families from six relief camps in North Tripura might be undertaken during dry season, Mizoram Home department officials said today.

Mahesh Kumar Singla, Adviser (Bru) made this suggestion at a meeting held in Aizawl yesterday, the officials said, adding that the former visited some villages in Tripura border Mamit district and Assam border Kolasib district where those repatriated were proposed to be resettled.

File photo: for representational

“It is not yet clear if the Bru repatriation process would be taken up as the attempts were futile exercise with the Bru community lodged in the relief camps unwilling to return to Mizoram,” the officials said.

They said that the Brus were making a plethora of excuses and several sets of new demands as condition for their return to Mizoram every time the road map for the repatriation was being to be implemented.

The Centre also had to take up a series of initiatives before the repatriation process could be taken up, they said.

Thousands of Brus left Mizoram and migrated to Tripura after Lalzawmliana, a forest guard was gunned down by Bru militants on October 21, 1997 inside Dampa Tiger Reserve near Persang hamlet.

The first attempt to repatriate them from November 16, 2009 not only did not take off, but a murder of Zarzokima, a young boy near Bungthuam village by the Bru militants triggered another wave of exodus.

Co-Editor, Zoramobserver.com. Mr. Khojol is a journalist based in Aizawl, Mizoram. He writes for various national and regional media houses. In his free time, he can be caught reading books and watching movies.